An enterprising group of Bexley members decided to book themselves into the Richmond Hotel in Ventnor again, having enjoyed the hospitality and indeed comfort of said premises last year. The spin on the strategy this year was that they were staying there from Wednesday night straight through for the whole weekend. Yes! No roughing it in tents, no dubious plumbing, no broken sleep courtesy of apocalypse-level snoring from two flysheets away. All it took was some careful booking of a mini-bus to convey them to and from the rally site, and the game, as Sherlock Holmes would have said, was afoot.
There were those of us however with limited funds or (perhaps more of a factor in my case) limited holiday time, who stuck to the Traditional Rally Plan (tm) and were to be found meeting up at the Esso garage, Dartford at a civilised time of the day on the Friday. So far, so normal. Oh and it was raining a bit, but the forecast was for sunny weather on the Saturday and Sunday so I was pretty optimistic as I sweated in my yellow, Triumph wasp waterproofs.
Our little party consisted of Ian and Julie, Andy and Lee, Dave Clarke plus of course myself, with Kevin and Janet expected but somewhat delayed. After some fuelling up we pulled out to get on to the M25, destination Portsmouth. We had got no further than the first set of traffic lights on the junction to the M25 though when disaster struck. Lee's outfit decided to misbehave (in a manner co-incidentally described in Lee Sykes' T-Days report) by cutting out. Andy was right behind her with nowhere to go so he grabbed a handful of front brake. Lee's bike re-started almost immediately but Andy was positioned dead-centre on a patch of diesel at that moment so the net result was that his front wheel shot three feet to the left and he went down with a bang. We all stopped and helped him lift the bike up and inspect the damage which appeared to be mostly superficial - at least to the bike; scratches and scrapes to the tank badge, exhaust and headlight, plus a bent handlebar and instrument brackets.
Andy sustained a bloodied nose, having interfaced lightly with a kerbstone, and he also had quite a bit of discomfort in his left arm, which puzzled us as he and his bike had landed on the right hand side. However he opted to ride on for a while to see if his bike was manageable, and we therefore carried on round the M25 in the direction of the A3.
For some reason (perhaps because it was Friday) the traffic on the M25 was heavy. Fortunately the rain had stopped just as we hit the tailbacks, but with Lee's outfit to consider we pootled along in the middle land and all that clutch action was making Andy's arm hurt, so he went on ahead for a bit. We stopped off at the Devil's Punchbowl for the customary overpriced National Trust cup of tea, at which point Kevin and Janet arrived. Andy's arm was more painful but he opted to carry on, so we mounted up again and had a brief stop for fuel before pressing on to Portsmouth.
The ferry crossing was uneventful, which is pretty much how I like them. I took the opportunity to read my newly-purchased Ordinance Survey map of the Isle Of Wight, with the intention of encouraging everybody to take a short, direct route to the stadium site, rather than the unguided tour of Ryde which we invariably find ourselves involved in. With an aching clutch-hand, Andy did not need much persuading and Dave reckoned he could easily lead the way. And that is exactly what happened: with a right and a left and a bit of straight-ahead we were there in literally ten minutes.
The friendly organisers heard tell of Andy's increasingly painful arm as we arrived and performed the generous service of taking him up to the hospital to get it checked out. Hence he was absent for the next segment of the day which was of course devoted to putting up our tents.
With that job done, I made a brief excursion to the Tesco superstore for some supplies which would not have fitted in my rucksack. As I got back to the rally site I found myself behind a big white bus in which was the hotelling contingent, and also behind Phil Loom who had sped down after work.
Not being sure when Andy would return we did the only sensible thing which was to go to the bar, get some food and sample a few beers. What with the slightly smaller general attendance on the Friday night, the population of the bar area seemed to be almost 50% Bexley, but we weren't exactly complaining. The band came on and played some cracking rock tunes, and my muso radar was alerted to a singular factor (possible pun intended) - their drummer only had one arm! If you had closed your eyes however you would not have been able to tell because the one stick he was using was almost a permanent blur. And he was pretty useful with his feet too.
A while later there was a special announcement from the band to the effect that a certain Chairman of Bexley TOMCC had just got back from the hospital. Andy duly walked in with a very impressive bandage-type thing on his arm and brought us up to date with the verdict from the medical types that he had been toughing it out all afternoon with a broken arm. That certainly put paid to any plans for riding his bike home!
As the evening wore on we were also visited by a special celebrity in the shape of Captain Banana. Now you may know from previous rallies that Captain "Top" Banana has been spotted on some Friday nights, especially at the Isle of Wight, but this year was exceptional as he had remembered to bring his own, distinctive costume which encompassed a mask, cape and - of course - oversized underpants to be worn on the outside. It was all very fetching and complemented perfectly his unique dance-floor style. In fact credit for the costume must go to Tracey but, to paraphrase some cowboy or another, it takes a big man to fill those underpants. The band played on and before long the big white coach was back and the rest of us were making our way back to the tents.
Saturday morning dawned with the fine weather promised to me by the BBC weather web site and we turned our attention to the all-important question of what to do. Lee had upholstered her sidecar with a single airbed to give Andy and his arm a softer ride, so we followed Shelley on a very pleasant route out east to Bembridge where we partook of some great views and some tasty pub lunch.
As it was the first time I had taken my Speed Triple to the island I was determined to have a spin down the Military Road, so that was the direction that Dave, Phil and I next headed. Unfortunately the road seemed to be closed at the Freshwater end and having got separated from Dave and Phil, I had also temporarily mislaid my nice OS map. I therefore ended up going all the way back down the Military Road as it was the easiest means of getting back to the Ryde locality. Suffice it to say they beat me back to the site and my missing map was later located (and I'm not making this up, honest) down the back of my trousers. Remarkably uncreased. If a bit warm.
The Saturday night band was supposed to be local favourites Aftershock but there had been some booking problem, so it a case of resorting to stand-ins in the shape of a duo of guitarists aided and abetted by, of all things, a laptop computer. It sounded OK as long as you had a broad tolerance for (indifferently) programmed drums.
The hotel crew went to the Ryde carnival and later came by the site to witness some of the musical performance and see Bexley win the biggest club turnout award. Then it was time to get back in the coach before it turned into a pumpkin, leaving the grubby tenty people (the rest of us) to bed down for the night.
Sunday saw Andy and his bike take a ride home on a relay truck whilst the rest of us made our way back in various groups. I snoozed longest, caught a later ferry and overtook Andy in the truck on the A3, then met up with Lee, Phil, Tom and Gwen at Clackett Lane services, before pausing at the Pued Bull long enough to meet up with Phil (again), Tank, Dave, Ian, Julie, Kevin and Janet. Just time to get home and dry the bottom of the tent before it got dark. Oh, and of course concoct this write-up while the hazy memories were fresh in my mind. All in all (injuries aside) another great rally.